French Stahlism and Chemical Studies of Air, 1750–1770

Fichman, Martin

doi:10.1179/amb.1971.18.2.94

Cited by 15 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…He referred to this property as the ‘elasticity’, or ‘spring’, of the air, which he characterized quantitatively in what became known as Boyle's law of ideal gases ( PV =const.). He differentiated ‘perennial air’ from vapours and exhalations, which were rendered ‘elastical for a while’ and by ‘manifest outward agents’; Boyle treated elasticity as an essential and immutable property of the microscopic particles of air [ 3 , pp. 97–99].…”

Section: Pneumatic Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gases, God and the balance of nature: a commentary on Priestley (1772) ‘Observations on different kinds of air’

McEvoy

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Historians of chemistry usually associate the eighteenth century with the Chemical Revolution, but it could just as readily be called ‘the century of gases’ (or ‘airs’, as they were called in the eighteenth century). In the early part of the century, the British pneumatic chemists struggled to replace the traditional notion ‘Air’, understood as an inert chemical element, with the concept of ‘air’, regarded as the third state of matter, encompassing a wide variety of chemical species. These developments constituted a necessary condition for the Chemical Revolution, which occurred in the latter part of the century. In ‘Observations’, Priestley took pneumatic chemistry to a new level, with the discovery of eight simple inorganic gases. Motivated by his belief in a benevolent God and a pious utilitarianism, Priestly explored the role of the atmosphere in the balance of nature and the politics of the state, which he linked to the movement of Rational Dissent. He styled himself an ‘aerial philosopher’ to signal the interdisciplinary nature of his inquiries, which he regarded not as a branch of ordinary chemistry, but as a mode of thought that encompassed physics, chemistry and natural theology. Priestley saw it as a source of principles and secrets of nature more extensive than that of ‘gravity itself’. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

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Section: Pneumatic Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gases, God and the balance of nature: a commentary on Priestley (1772) ‘Observations on different kinds of air’

McEvoy

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…He deliberately extended his theory beyond Robert Boyle's ideas that vapours were particles suspended in the air, while not sharing the same nature as air. 6 Although allowing that vapours could form in this way, Brownrigg argued that different kinds of elastic fluid made up the atmosphere, each of which reacted with solids and liquids differently according to their properties. However, because Brownrigg did not publish these papers except half of the fourth one in 1765, they were not known except to a limited group, and his work has remained unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

William Brownrigg's papers on fire-damps

Tomory

2010

Notes Rec. R. Soc.

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In 1741 -42, William Brownrigg prepared five papers on fire-damps for the Royal Society in which he articulated a theory of a gaseous state of matter, argued that different sorts of elastic fluid existed, and claimed that atmospheric air was a heterogeneous mixture of various elastic fluids with different properties that had only their elasticity in common. Although these papers were never published, there is a strong possibility that they influenced the later development of pneumatic chemistry, because Henry Cavendish was very probably aware of a good portion of their contents.

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Phlogiston

Chang¹

2019

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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French Stahlism and Chemical Studies of Air, 1750–1770

Cited by 15 publications

References 2 publications

Gases, God and the balance of nature: a commentary on Priestley (1772) ‘Observations on different kinds of air’

Gases, God and the balance of nature: a commentary on Priestley (1772) ‘Observations on different kinds of air’

William Brownrigg's papers on fire-damps

Phlogiston

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